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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Reasons To Let Your Hair Go Gray

Many of you have written in with concerns about your gray hair. There are no rules when it comes to deciding whether or not to dye your hair. I think silver hair is stunning and agree with another silver haired fashionista, Lubi,that it should be called "Platinum Elegance." My friend Jenny has never received so many compliments since letting her hair go gray three years ago. At the end of the day, do what makes you feel best and have fun in the process. Remember you can go gray today and gone tomorrow.

This woman is fabulous...maybe someday I will have the courage to do this...especially if I keep seeing incredible, stylish women like she is!! For now, I tend to look like a skunk with a stripe down the center if I do not get right into the stylists!!

Just discovered your blog, and am loving it. (Although living in the country in the winter is not conducive to high style, to put it mildly. Dressing for survival is key.)The first post on my blog --- something I would never have dreamed I could do at all -- was about the surprises that came with my newly white hair:http://touch2touch.wordpress.com/2010/08/29/it’s-the-white-hair-that-does-it/So I can attest, You're really on to something here, Ari! Good luck to you ---

I first saw Jenny on Style Like You and I thought she was lovely, elegant, gracious, I could go on and on... I think a silver mane can be so elegant. I once took a picture of this regal woman with such an fabulous mane of white grey silver hair.

Though I think it looks silly (to put it gently) when someone under 20 dyes their hair grey.

she looks gorgeous. i'm letting mine go silver for the same reason - the dark tint that matches my dark hair no long flatters me. but i went ahead and whacked off my hair. it stands up in places (i call it my tiara), so it's fun and edgy. i actually wish i had more silver than i do (thought i did!), and look forward to having more. my plan is to grow it out to chin length and dip the ends in midnight blue.

my mom (83) has finally stopped using horrible blonde (they turned apricot) tints and looks fantastic with her mix of white and silver. i know it can be scary to let your hair go silver or white, but if it's right for you you will love it.

I love Jenny. I am doing exactly what she describes in the video - I'm gradually growing out the colour. I had a streak of natural grey in the front for years and then followed some bad advice and coloured it white/blonde. Awful. I miss my gray and, like Jenny, don't want to go the short route because it just wouldn't work on me. It's painstaking but worth it - thanks Jenny.

For some years now I have worn my hair very short.I am 59 and it is just starting to get silver threads - it's like having streaks for free!!I won't use hair colourings any more as most of them contain nasty chemicals, but also I like the look of my hair now, and can't wait to get more silver - unfortunately it is slow to happen.

Jenny is GORGEOUS! Frankly, I am 26 and I wish I looked as beautiful as her right now. :o) I always wondered: if you had very dark hair (as Jenny did and as I do) could you not color your hair with a crazy hue, like a Manic Panic blue, and have it just take to the gray hairs? I think this would be a fun way to ease into full gray without having the mixed dark and gray that can look messy while growing all the way out. I want to know if anyone has tried it. :o)Great blog, Ari!

jess t. - yes, you can. the manic panic will stick to the now-colorless hair. i'm waiting for mine to get more silver so i can do colored tips. if you do an overall dark color, you wind up with the same problem we have with tinting it dark brown/black - it can look harsh. i plan to do tips in midnight blue, but leave the rest silver to frame my face. that's a ways off, but i look forward to playing.

Grey hair looks great if it is thick and healthy looking like Jenny's. I have fine hair with no body, so have kept it very short most of my life, and experimented with different colours, including the platinum & pink combo that Debra has going on. If I could wake up tomorrow and all my hair was a nice uniform silver grey, I'd keep it, but for now I've got a combination of plum and golden brown,and get lots of compliments on it.

Totally agree with Karissa - Jenny, WEAR YOUR HAIR DOWN! You look COMPLETELY fabulous like that!! (You also look fabulous with your hair up, of course.) So few of us with gray hair have the texture and body you do - if I had your hair, I would definitely wear it long A LOT. As it is, at 61, I have interesting gray hair (the gray is all in the front and frames my face, which is quite cool), but I have zero texture - it's all fine and super-straight. So I can't wear it long. But you should!!

(Ari, I love this blog. Lately, I especially love your stuff on creativity and living a creative life. In fact, I've been thinking you could start a whole other blog on urging people to be more creative. It is such a struggle for me.)

Ari I am so grateful to you for posting your video of you friend Jenny and why and how she wears her hair gray. I love the term "platinum elegance." Your blog is such a breath of fresh air for me. At a time when I'm about to turn 48, I'm having a bit of trepidation about the aspect of getting older. I truly want to be a lovely old crone, living artfully, with grace and dignity. I want to someday be a hip, cool grandma. This blog, I have a feeling with give me a little hope and will help me deal with accepting the inevitable by showing me that it is possible to be classy, beautiful and lovely in addition to being wiser from finally coming into my own as a woman after years of struggling with shaky self esteem in my younger years. A big hug and a thank you for this. Also, I love NYC, it's my favorite place to visit. That makes it doubly great.

I really needed to read this TODAY! As my husband is not so pleased in my decision of letting my gray hair come in. It's normally a dark blond/light brown. Looking at the family tree, I'll have a head of white/silver hair. After having gone through several hypothyroid flairups, health concerns, etc... it just seems to be the right and most logical thing to do. So I am. I did have my hair stylist put in some highlights in the crown area only to help it blend. Personally, I'm really happy with how this is transitioning. Then this morning I was standing under a flourescent light in our basement and my husband stood there in shock, as I guess the grays were beaming at him more than usual. He was actually in shock. No he doesn't notice much, but today he did. I don't think he likes it. Kinda hurt my feelings as he knows the health issues I've had. So that's why I say I'm glad to have read/watched this today. I needed the encouragment, including all the comments. This is who I am. God's allowing my hair to turn gray. I'm almost 44, and I am a grandma... so whatever dear husband. Like it or not, this is the way it's going to be. I'm sure he'll recover and learn to like it. If not, oh well...

I am 48 years old, and I have decided I'm done with dying my gray hair. This interview with my hairstylist, Matt Mack, marks the beginning of journey to going gray (by the way, Jeni, you are so beautiful with your platinum elegance!):

I used semi-permanent hair color for years, but like Jenny, it was too dark for my skin as I got older. Luckily, with semi-permanent color, there is no harsh line when you stop coloring. It just fades over several months until you are back to the natural color. My hair dresser was dead set against it. But I didn't want to wait too long and miss having silver hair. My hairdresser is now a believer as my hair looks great and really compliments my skin. I'm wearing colors I never wore before, since my hair is no longer so dark. Love it!